New to BP guns and have a lube question

[unstableryan]

Hello,
Just picked up 2 1851 Colt navy revolvers and a .54 cal Hawken. I've shot BP a few times before but never owned any.

They came with a lot of kit, couple hundred round balls for each gun and the .54 came with a couple hundred of these.


Do I need to pan lube them with one of the recipes on here? I currently PC bullets for my .357 mag and 45/70, but with BP it's more about powder fouling than lead fouling right?

Thanks for any help.

Ryan

[MT Chambers]

You need a BP lube such as SPG or make your own from Bee's wax, crisco and lanolin....this is close to the old gov. mix used in the 1800s.

[country gent]

Pick up a copy of Lymans black powder handbook, It will give you the basics of loading charges and bullets. along with ballistic tables and a lot of good information. Emmerts improved or SPG work well with the r.e.a.l. bullet as does thompsen centers lube. The TC lube is messier to use.

Emmerts Improved recipe I use is:

50% beeswax
40% Crisco unsalted shortening
5% olive or canola oil
5% anahydrous lanolin ( its the creamy one not liquid)
I add a couple drops of murphies oil soap to this as a binder

In a double boiler melt wax and Crisco together add oil and blend then add lanolin and the few drops of murphies oil soap. stir well for 5 mins or so and let cool.

This lube works well for pan lubing but use a Kake cutter to remove bullets its a soft lube. It does very well keeping fouling soft and manageable. It has a pleasant smell also.

Mixed 45% beeswax
45% Crisco
5% canola oil
5% lanolin
the same 3-4 drops of oil soap
It might make a soft enough lube to fill chambers with on the cap and ball revolvers for bullet lube and to protect against chain fires.

[unstableryan]

Thanks,
I found beeswax and lanolin on amazon, but then called around locally. Pharmaceutical pure beeswax is half the price from my local hippy candle store. Lanolin is $12 for 1/4 lb and crisco/murphy's is cheap and common.

I'll pop some balls out of the rifle this sunday, and get into the lube and bullets next week. I like learning new stuff.

Thanks,

[country gent]

The Crisco plain works well as is. the beeswax stiffens it and the oil lanolin lubricate and make it softer, but in a pinch plain Crisco does good.

[crandall crank]

Another option for BP lube is a mixture of beeswax and olive oil. Somewhere around a 60/40 mixture. Works well on conicals, patches and for chapped hands!

[unstableryan]

Thanks everyone. There's a pile of info on here about lubes, but thanks for sending me in the muzzle loading specific direction.

[ShooterAZ]

Another option for BP lube is a mixture of beeswax and olive oil. Somewhere around a 60/40 mixture. Works well on conicals, patches and for chapped hands!

This is what I have been using too. It's a simple recipe and you can adjust the stiffness of the lube for your season/temps. I use bore butter from time to time too. it works pretty good, but is runny in warm weather.

[unstableryan]

I was on amazon and bought a tube of bore butter today just to try it out.

[ShooterAZ]

I have mixed a little bore butter with my beeswax/olive oil blend to soften it up a little in cold weather. Works fine.

[Wayne Smith]

Get some wool weather stripping - and make sure it's pure wool. Soak a strip of it in your BP lube and let it dry. Get the right size punch and punch out some wads for those revolvers. A lot easier than filling the chamber mouths with Crisco, which will melt and run out at the first shot. Load powder, wad, ball and shoot to your heart's content.

[unstableryan]

Thanks for the advice. I can source beeswax locally for cheap, but I bought lanolin and murphy's oil soap from amazon. Should have seen the package with the oil soap. The bottle got crushed at some point, so they put it in a sealed bag. I got a squishy soaked orange envelope in a bag on my door step. I went online, clicked a few buttons and another is out for delivery automatically. Awesome.

I finally got to shoot the rifle last night but I just used 50-90gr of pyrodex rs with lubed patched balls. First time I have ever loaded my own black powder rifle. I've fired a few shots in the past, but it was really cool doing it all myself and I would like to thank everyone here for the knowledge base. I may have 14 posts, but I've been hanging around since Jan 2009

[lar45]

One of the biggest things to remember about shooting BP is to make sure that your ball/bullet is seated firmly on top of the powder charge. Do not leave any open air space.

[John Boy]

Source for supplies:
Duro-Felt Products
Wad Felt - http://www.durofelt.com/image_26.html
Lanolin - http://www.durofelt.com/image_33.html
Sheep Tallow - http://www.durofelt.com/image_73.html

The owner, Aysha, has catered to percussion & BPCR shooters for over 10 years. I even buy adhesive backed felt circles that I use to put on the bullet bases of my breech seated reloads

[Maven]

What John Boy said!!

[yeahbub]

A note about those Lee R.E.A.L. boolits. If you load them bare with lube, and the accuracy is just so-so, try cloth-patching the bottom driving band. It affords a better seal and improves accuracy. A fellow told me about that after I had almost given up on getting reliable hunting accuracy with R.E.A.L.s, but I tried patching them that way and suddenly I could do no wrong. It eliminated a lot of frustration.

[BigBore45]

I have always used strait Crisco. No leading for me.